I went from act 1 hell to main tank in act 3 inferno group farm (could semi-solo farm but just took too long and some packs were not doable without deaths) with total gear worth under 500k. At the time, my gear was something like this:
1) wand was 550 dps with LoH and AP on crit 2) shield with ~50 AR, 6% crit, no int/vit/extra armor 3) gloves with ~50 AR, 6ish% crit, some int/vit 4) helm with ~50 AR and 9 AP on crit, some int 5) LoH / IAS blue rings 6) some crappy amulet with some crit 7) rest of gear with ~50 AR and vit, a few had int and other stats
As you can see, not very impressive. My armor was in fact greater than my DPS; I had no crit damage bonus, only 22% crit, etc. However, I was still able to progress even vs extra health elites (some packs were just not possible though, namely extra health kiters with abilities that made it impossible to have high uptime).
Re: Act 3 and 4 Progression
A few hours ago, I was able to push through past Siegebreaker and kill Diablo. I borrowed a 900 dps weapon with LoH and zero AP on crit from a friend for the stretch up until Diablo (goal was to test the spec with less AP on crit), and managed the final kill because I dropped a few $$ on a better wand (750 DPS with crit damage bonus and only 220 LoH, still zero AP on crit) and a better shield (mine was just crap with 6% crit and zero int), as well as a source that I swapped to for the added deeps. Initially, I was nervous about the significantly smaller LoH and reduction in AP on crit, but my defenses were able to sustain it.
Observations on boss fights:
Azmodan - I swapped explosive blast for venom hydra, frost nova for time warp and cold blooded for glass cannon; reasoning is that time warp slows his attack animations therefore helping more than frost nova, and lack of EB resulting in more WW healing / CM spam (hydra also damages during the times where you have to run from the lava pools). Took a few tries to get him down; I also had to skip a lot of packs in crater (but some were just redic). Always tele to his other side once the fireball starts homing; saves a lot of damage.
Act 4 Progression, Rakanoth - I used blur as third passive and swapped explosive blast to time warp for the full duration as I was having so much trouble staying alive otherwise. Rakanoth in particular was a monster; I could not sustain extended durations of his melee even with all of this (does not help that he likes to jump around and out of WW). I finally got him after using the mirror images from fracture as always-there decoys; every time he swung at one it bought me that extra moment for DS to come back up. Izual I did not solo, so I don't have any insight.
Diablo - After a few deaths and different spec trials, some of this with a 100k dps DH in tow, I went and got the wand/shield upgrade and one-shot him solo with the standard spec (WW/EB). By far the most important thing is to save EVERYTHING for the clones when they pop in phase 2 (you can control when they spawn so be mindful), and then just make 3-4 laps around the whole room, teleporting away from Diablo when he comes back and letting him waste his angst on your fractures. For me, arcane orb by my clone was instakill thru DS. Also, kindly stay out of the soul cages and don't forget that frost nova stops the cast, but not the existing shadows. I could actually live thru the soul cage capture animation on a full health bar, but it literally brought me to 200 health so this is not a good idea. Finally, I found it worthwhile to teleport out of the big fireballs, and used teleport a lot in general to close distances with him whenever he saw a squirrel.
ORIGINAL POST AS FOLLOWS
Hey everyone,
I made a few posts on DiabloFans and in other threads on this forum on this issue, and wanted to take some time to put my thoughts together and see if the end result can help some more people.
First, please do take some time to read Sme's guide on melee wizards; this guy can be credited with pioneering the build. Also, do yourself a service and read through the 72 pages of posts, particularly the ones discussing Wicked Wind / EB and possible variants for different (usually higher) gear levels.
This skill may as well be called Healing Wind; with respectable LPH and at least one target to hit, you can bring yourself to full life in moments if anything gets through your diamond skin. It also procs Critical Mass quite a good bit. Do yourself a favor and just hold your left click down on stuff; it will cast just fine once you have enough AP rather than the L-click spamfest that is driving your cat insane.
R-Click: Teleport with Fracture or Safe Passage
I have played with a few skills for this slot, but have found Teleport to be absolutely essential; there are just way too many mob affixes and types that will give you unnecessary problems without it (waller/jailer/vortex/nightmarish plus any kind of nasty arcane/molten/desecrator combination for starters, molok anything, other obnoxious kiters). Also, there is something beautiful about being able to teleport every few seconds with Critical Mass, and position yourself in the best possible location for CM / AP procs at any given point. With the Safe Passage rune, it is feasible to keep the 30% buff at a high uptime, however this does cut into your AP supply and tends to shift big boss mobs around (so they are no longer standing in your tornado storm); Fracture is just strong overall for the extra distraction component. Calamity, I do not recommend as the last thing you want to do as a melee wizard is to knock mobs all over the place.
Hotkey 1: Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell or Prism if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for life orb to not move at all. Every time this icon lights up, it needs to be casted, because you never know what is going to happen in the next few seconds. Obviously, you can save your finger energy on white packs that are perma-rooted, but you get the idea...
Hotkey 2: Frost Nova with Cold Snap or Bone Chill if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for stuff to move as little as possible for maximum WW uptime. At my unimpressive gear levels I am already able to pseudo-perma root elite packs. There is no reason not to cast Frost Nova when it is lit up. Note that, while Deep Freeze and Bone Chill are perfectly viable runes, I have found that Cold Snap is quite simply the best as it serves to further mitigate incoming damage and leverage your close-range abilities against annoying, fast kiters. Also, for the time being, Cold Snap means more Cold Blooded uptime.
Hotkey 3: Exposive Blast with Chain Reaction
This is the superior iteration of EB (although people just starting out should probably begin with Unleashed). For reasons, please see the discussion in Sme's threads. Purpose should be self-explanatory; you can generally spam it but be careful that you do not have more EB casts than WW as it does not proc LoH, CM and AP on Crit quite as reliably.
Hotkey 4: Force Armor with Prismatic
Also self-explanatory, armor and resists are your two main stats. You can try running with Pinpoint if your gear is weak and you have a barb friend for the shout, otherwise I do not recommend it. At higher gear levels, Storm Armor with Shocking Aspect is another option if you have the pocket barb. Keep this on at all times; I have died more to it wearing off than anything else, lol.
Passives: Critical Mass, Evocation, Cold Blooded
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage (on targets frozen by nova, thank you resident moron for pointing out that I did not specifically say this), so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time. Evocation helps all of your skills, particularly Frost Nova for higher Cold Blooded uptime, etc. Once Cold Blooded is fixed, you can use Blur in conjunction with Storm Armor in groups with a barb, or Temporal Flux in general.
Other skills / runes to mix in for groups - bone chill on nova, time warp instead of teleport; safe passage teleport with the storm armor shocking aspect variant...a lot can work in a group, and this is probably the best usage of melee wizard to boot (particularly if you can get that yummy barb shout).
GEAR
Stat priority for melee wiz is as follows:
1) AP on Crit - at least 15 from weapon and helm; basically weapon must be a wand, otherwise you need to outgear content and use a source. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 9 AP on Crit from helm only after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff; keep old weapon as backup just in case.
2 ) Life per hit - at least 800 to start, less is tolerable at higher gear levels, more is safer as long as you have the durability. Note that you basically have to get this on a weapon as other slots (jewelry) can't really roll with a lot. This means that you need a weapon with AP on Crit, Life per Hit and decent DPS (mine is 590, lol); anything else is high roller / good luck; search AH for these two stats and view downward from top DPS. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 400 LoH after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff;keep old weapon as backup just in case.
3) Crit - important as it is only available on a few slots: gloves (a lot), helm and bracer (not a lot; I think 5% may be max on wizard hats or something), weapon (above stats more important), shield (same as gloves, a lot), and jewelry. Gloves with both IAS and crit are going to be expensive, so your practical solution is to get crit from gloves for this spec (not IAS). 20 is a good start, 30 is plenty.
4) All Resist and Armor - almost equally important to crit, and irreversibly linked together. You need a lot of AR and armor so every single piece should have 50% AR (affordable) and +armor as possible. At low budgets, this means that you will search for int / AR / crit (where possible) for each armor slot, sort downward by ARMOR RATING, and then look for other stats like vit and sort to increase/decrease Int and AR. You will want at least 800 AR and 6k armor after buffs to start; can stop resists at 1k but never stop focus on armor as it is more difficult to max (try to get the +bonus on each armor slot if you can; remember that a friendly barb boosts resists but not armor because enchantress gives almost as much solo).
5) Intelligence and Vitality - still important, but everything else comes before. I group these together as you will generally want both on armor (affordable along with AR); also on the gloves, helm and shield (your crit gear). The benefit of vitality is obvious; intelligence is more of a luxury but it's fairly affordable to search auctions for it because most wizzies are still buying up glass cannon gear; can get 140+ int pieces with armor, resists and vitality for good prices.
6) Critical Damage Bonus - this is actually the best way to increase DPS, but it is also a luxury stat that should only be picked up when possible. You have to develop your tank first; trust me 8k DPS is enough to clear extra health elites, and your actual DPS is much higher anyway due to the ability to spam.
7) IAS / damage / life % / skill bonuses / movement speed / MF / GF / other expensive shit - only as they do not interfere with the top 4 priorities. Exception is movement speed on boots; this is fairly cheap most of the time (look for boots with movement, AR and int/vit).
In summary, items you should try to procure in order to "unlock" this playstyle:
a) 700+ LoH / 8+ AP on crit / 550+ DPS wand with +crit damage if possible
7+ AP on crit / 50+ AR / int / vit helm with +armor and +crit if possible
c) 6%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit shield with +armor if possible
d) 7%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit gloves with +armor if possible
e) 150+ LoH rings and amulet with either crit or attack speed (preference on crit), AR, +armor and +crit damage if possible
f) For bracer, you may want to start out with 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit and take 3%+ crit only if you can get it cheap.
g) 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit on all "vanilla" slots that cannot contain DPS stats
All of this gear should be purchasable for 1-2M and a few dollars here and there; just have to get lucky with the moderate DPS LoH / AP on crit wand as there's not very many in circulation (I guess because people automatically vendor anything with <700 DPS?).
FACETANKING GHOM
I died a few times to him yesterday with my standard spec, then decided to mix in Venom Hydra and Time Warp (instead of tele and frost nova) and nailed him. I was able to facetank him in one spot and absorb all damage by both his fatass and his fatgas. The key is TO NOT LET YOUR PRISMATIC DROP! Only after the fact did I realize that this is why I died the first few times (because it took me that long with my low DPS to get his lifebar down); at the time I thought that his damage output got stronger and he was therefore not tankable for a long period.
Bottom line is to stand in ONE spot (do not move around, as he will move around and out of your WW) and just HOLD left-click on him, while SPAMMING THE HELL out of diamond skin and hitting EB only when your AP gets high. With my gear (1k resists, 6.5k armor, 1k LoH, 18 AP on crit, 21% crit), my lifebar cycled between 80-100% and never really dropped further. Missing a diamond skin because the fatass moved can be disastrous to your health, so just keep him in one spot. Note that if he starts moving a lot, you can move back yourself to trigger his slimes (yum more targets) which can help you out of a tight spot due to the additional procs; this is dangerous so keep a potion CD ready.
DEALING WITH OBNOXIOUS ELITES
Arcane vortex desecrator molten molok, anyone? Some combos are just not fair. Where possible, you actually want to be fighting all of the spawns at the same time, with at least the first 10-15 seconds spent surrounded by white mobs. Obviously, mobs that kite don't really agree with your strategy. If the bastards have just one or two ground target abilities (desecrator or arcane), then you can save your teleport for when one gets casted in a location where it will threaten you. If the bastards have ALL of the ground target abilities, you need to save your tele for vortex/jailer/waller/clusterfun. If the bastards are also kiters, you should probably evaluate the possibility of skipping them, as you can expect an enrage with your gear, and killing one does not help with the others as it gives you less procs of stuff.
On the plus side, most melee elites that do not have ALL of the ground target abilities plus obnoxious combo that leaves you subject to them, are for the most part
; just run into them and start your rotation. Even fire chains / molten can be handled with little problem if you can limit their movement and keep them in front of you (tele helps).
Please let me know if you have questions; I will check the thread periodically. For people linking stats, do us all a favor and share your LoH, AP on crit and crit; otherwise we have no idea how to help you.
Quite a useful and comprehensive guide. Thanks for your detailed post. I have to agree with almost all of it. I don't personally use teleport, but I also don't have enough arcane on crit to non-stop cast wicked wind, so I can see how it would work better.
Thanks for the guide, but I disagree on some points -
Frost Nova will always be better with Deep Freeze if your crit % is low, and Bone Chill if yours is high enough. While Cold Snap theoretically reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova, beyond a crit % of around 30% you should be able to just chain cast them. Especially since you have Evocation.
Another possible passive is Astral Presence, especially when you first start out and your AP on crit is not high enough to sustain this build.
As for stat priorities, I'd go AP on crit (till 15 or 20) > Crit % > Crit Damage > LOH > IAS > Int. Always strive to maintain 5k-ish armor, at least 600 AR buffed and at least 25k hp. Another stat to consider is CC reduction. This is not a very popular stat, but in a build like this where mobility and the ability to chain cast is key to our survival, having as little downtime as possible is important.
Some good pieces of gear include -
Dark Magus Hat - You'd definitely get Crit, Intellect, 9% CC reduction and one socket from this. Try to look for one with 3% crit bonus to EB as well. Pretty cheap usually, got mine for 200k.
Wizardspike - Definitely AP on Crit, Max AP and Intellect. Try to look for those with sockets as well. Can be slightly more expensive though. Lucked out and got my 669 dps Wizardspike with all these for 1.2m, but they're generally around 10m or so.
wizardspike is missing a key stat - life on hit. from the weapon slot this is huge, you can get 750+ easily, shouldn't pass that up just for a shiny name.
wizardspike with loh would be out there, but they'd cost at least 10x more than a similar rare. how much loh do you run with if there's none on your weapon? 200?
anyways i gotta say, op, since switching to this skill set i've cut down on deaths by at least 500% and am now enjoying having my way with illusionist/arcane enchanted/etc. teleport really was a necessary skill.
Thanks for the guide, but I disagree on some points -
Frost Nova will always be better with Deep Freeze if your crit % is low, and Bone Chill if yours is high enough. While Cold Snap theoretically reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova, beyond a crit % of around 30% you should be able to just chain cast them. Especially since you have Evocation.
Another possible passive is Astral Presence, especially when you first start out and your AP on crit is not high enough to sustain this build.
As for stat priorities, I'd go AP on crit (till 15 or 20) > Crit % > Crit Damage > LOH > IAS > Int. Always strive to maintain 5k-ish armor, at least 600 AR buffed and at least 25k hp. Another stat to consider is CC reduction. This is not a very popular stat, but in a build like this where mobility and the ability to chain cast is key to our survival, having as little downtime as possible is important.
Some good pieces of gear include -
Dark Magus Hat - You'd definitely get Crit, Intellect, 9% CC reduction and one socket from this. Try to look for one with 3% crit bonus to EB as well. Pretty cheap usually, got mine for 200k.
Wizardspike - Definitely AP on Crit, Max AP and Intellect. Try to look for those with sockets as well. Can be slightly more expensive though. Lucked out and got my 669 dps Wizardspike with all these for 1.2m, but they're generally around 10m or so.
You are quite simply wrong on Deep Freeze? Why? You have to hit 5 targets. Meaning that it gives you no benefit for champion packs once all adds are dead. The specific benefit of Cold Snap as I outlined is that it allows you to increase uptime of Cold Blooded / reduce amount of time that elite packs are moving around and using their abilities. No, you cannot chain-cast nova on elites without Cold Snap at 30% crit.
If you need Astral Presense, then you should be running the Deep Cuts / Star Pact variant. AP alone does not go anywhere near compensating for not having sufficient AP on crit (which is not difficult to get in the first place if you recognize that you have to make a wand DPS sacrifice).
As for your suggested stat priority, I am confused at how you stay alive in Inferno with such low armor, resists and LoH. I am guessing that you either have 30k+ DPS from high-end gear, or are not in fact playing past act 1 inferno. Please clarify.
As far as your recommendations on unique items, it is far more important to focus on the top 4 stats than to get situational bonuses like crowd control reduction. A good hat for this build has AP on crit, a few points of crit, 50+ AR, +armor, and a moderate amount of int / vit.
Great post! Finally people are seeing the effectiveness of meelee wiz
I am forever experimenting with swapping skills around. The last thing I did was putting wicked wind AND meteor (star pact) in the build at the same time (i play without teleport) and with astral presence I am hardly out of ap. It is more damaging and both those skills are great with LoH and Critical Mass.
What do you think of venom hydra instead of explosive blasts? should help with ap-spenditure as hydra is a one-time cast, obviously you loose on the chance to crit more. Also I tend to scrap them both in group play and use Time Warp to help everyone else's dps.
WW and meteor is a bit overkill, and astral presence is wasting a slot (CB and evo are all better). Also, with both of these skills, your AP supply for EB is diminished OR you have less tornadoes and therefore less crits.
Time Warp is definitely strong in groups as well as Bone Chill nova. If you have a barb, consider swapping Prismatic to Pinpoint as well; just make sure that you keep the shout on you.
EB is very efficient for damage/cost; which is why it normally has a cooldown. With a CM build, the cooldown is mitigated, and it deals damage to everything around you, proccing LoH, CM and AP on Crit. Hydra is super-strong right now, but it procs nothing, so while it does help you kill things faster (maybe), it also makes you less durable.
You are quite simply wrong on Deep Freeze? Why? You have to hit 5 targets. Meaning that it gives you no benefit for champion packs once all adds are dead. The specific benefit of Cold Snap as I outlined is that it allows you to increase uptime of Cold Blooded / reduce amount of time that elite packs are moving around and using their abilities. No, you cannot chain-cast nova on elites without Cold Snap at 30% crit.
If you need Astral Presense, then you should be running the Deep Cuts / Star Pact variant. AP alone does not go anywhere near compensating for not having sufficient AP on crit (which is not difficult to get in the first place if you recognize that you have to make a wand DPS sacrifice).
As for your suggested stat priority, I am confused at how you stay alive in Inferno with such low armor, resists and LoH. I am guessing that you either have 30k+ DPS from high-end gear, or are not in fact playing past act 1 inferno. Please clarify.
As far as your recommendations on unique items, it is far more important to focus on the top 4 stats than to get situational bonuses like crowd control reduction. A good hat for this build has AP on crit, a few points of crit, 50+ AR, +armor, and a moderate amount of int / vit.
I guess we differ on how we play then.
I run through the whole dungeon constantly, and only stop when I meet Champions or Elites. That way, I'd always have a ready pool of mobs to get AP from. When I rolled with Deep Freeze (I use Bone Chill now), I could consistently get the bonus. Indeed, Cold Snap is a useful rune, but I found it to be an overkill with both Evocation and >30% crit around.
I don't really need Astral Presence. I just suggested it as an alternative for those who can't afford AP on crit gear, since this was a thread targeted at those starting out on this build.
Similar to my Astral Presence suggestion, the 600 AR buffed, 5k-ish armor and 25k hp is for entry level melee wizards (as the thread title implies). Anyone can easily clear early Inferno with such stats. I'm not sure how my personal progression matters since this thread is targeted at entry level melee wizards, but I'm clearing Act 3 Inferno now.
I beat inferno diablo tonight with a melee build derived from this post.
I used this build's skill set up but replaced teleport with venom hydra and EB with time warp. I used cold snap on nova for the boss.
I use crit mass/cold blooded/evocation most of the time, and used these passives for diablo as well. I find astral presence unnecessary at this gear level.
I was able to easily chain DS/time warp/nova for the whole fight. I stood in fire. I stood in cages. Even with ds down I was able to survive cages. During p2 I ran away from the adds until they despawned... This was after many unsuccesssful attempts to tank them down while remaining stationary. The clones hit ridiculously hard no matter how much armor and resistance you have, and remain incredibly mobile. I found myself lucky if I was survived the first clone when I attempted to kill them, but I easily survived all 3 clones the first time I tried running until they despawned.
I use a weapon (socketed/850 dps/300 int) from my "regular" dps build (66-71k dps with very little resist) which i socket with a 500 life on hit gem for my tank build (it usually has an emerald socketed)
Not counting my weapon or gem I have spent 5-6 million on the gear for the set I beat diablo in. Factor in weapon and gem (perfect star) and you can probably tack on another 10m, but I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to do it with much lower dps as long as you had a socket and a 300 life on hit gem. I found the 9 ap on crit return from my helm alone enough to sustain the casting requirements of the build without also going for ap on crit on my weapon.
stats:
crit: ~30
ap on crit: 9
resist: 1000-1100 with primsatic
hp: 27k
dps: 15k
armor: ~7500 buffed
life on hit: ~1350
for packs/farming in a3 I use the build from this post exactly (with fracture on tele)
I can also post screenshot of gear if you'd like
This is a good guide with a comprehensive description, I totally agree with all the stat priority and speccing info.
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage, so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage, so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Easily tested yes, Im saying Im not getting any damage increase what so ever.. 20% should be noticeable. I havent seen any blue posts about this at the official forums
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage, so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Easily tested yes, Im saying Im not getting any damage increase what so ever.. 20% should be noticeable. I havent seen any blue posts about this at the official forums
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage, so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Here is a screen comp of my stats, i dont see it showing AP on crit in the character sheet so i just ss'd my helm and weapon and life on hit gear so you can see i'm not rocking a source.
I assume the more your crit % goes up the less relative amount of AP on crit you need. If you are closer to 20% rather than 30% crit you might need the additional AP on crit to sustain. if you want to see more of my gear beyond that its pretty standard, at least 50 AR on everything, prioritizing armor, and really searching for lots of crit (gloves, rings, shield, helm). i socketed vitality because i was feeling a little low with like 18k hp even with all those resists. let me know if there's any other info i can supply.
these are my stats WITH prismatic up. i use blur/cold blooded/evocation
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage, so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Easily tested yes, Im saying Im not getting any damage increase what so ever.. 20% should be noticeable. I havent seen any blue posts about this at the official forums
Just to be sure you're testing it right, you're testing on a chilled or fozen mob, right? The apparent tooltip error or bug is that it applies to all damage, not just cold damage, as long as it is chilled or frozen.
Here's a website full of videos of this build (and some slight variations/gear/etc) http://www.windupwizard.com/
His boots are worth 5 times my entire gear set combined
Man this spec requires some serious cash to throw down on gear and the damage isn't amazing either. Looks pretty OP though. I would have to say the tornado barb is like a million times more ridiculous though. If something needs a nerf, it should be them not us.
Re: Concerns of "30M Gear Costs"
I went from act 1 hell to main tank in act 3 inferno group farm (could semi-solo farm but just took too long and some packs were not doable without deaths) with total gear worth under 500k. At the time, my gear was something like this:
1) wand was 550 dps with LoH and AP on crit
2) shield with ~50 AR, 6% crit, no int/vit/extra armor
3) gloves with ~50 AR, 6ish% crit, some int/vit
4) helm with ~50 AR and 9 AP on crit, some int
5) LoH / IAS blue rings
6) some crappy amulet with some crit
7) rest of gear with ~50 AR and vit, a few had int and other stats
As you can see, not very impressive. My armor was in fact greater than my DPS; I had no crit damage bonus, only 22% crit, etc. However, I was still able to progress even vs extra health elites (some packs were just not possible though, namely extra health kiters with abilities that made it impossible to have high uptime).
Re: Act 3 and 4 Progression
A few hours ago, I was able to push through past Siegebreaker and kill Diablo. I borrowed a 900 dps weapon with LoH and zero AP on crit from a friend for the stretch up until Diablo (goal was to test the spec with less AP on crit), and managed the final kill because I dropped a few $$ on a better wand (750 DPS with crit damage bonus and only 220 LoH, still zero AP on crit) and a better shield (mine was just crap with 6% crit and zero int), as well as a source that I swapped to for the added deeps. Initially, I was nervous about the significantly smaller LoH and reduction in AP on crit, but my defenses were able to sustain it.
Observations on boss fights:
Azmodan - I swapped explosive blast for venom hydra, frost nova for time warp and cold blooded for glass cannon; reasoning is that time warp slows his attack animations therefore helping more than frost nova, and lack of EB resulting in more WW healing / CM spam (hydra also damages during the times where you have to run from the lava pools). Took a few tries to get him down; I also had to skip a lot of packs in crater (but some were just redic). Always tele to his other side once the fireball starts homing; saves a lot of damage.
Act 4 Progression, Rakanoth - I used blur as third passive and swapped explosive blast to time warp for the full duration as I was having so much trouble staying alive otherwise. Rakanoth in particular was a monster; I could not sustain extended durations of his melee even with all of this (does not help that he likes to jump around and out of WW). I finally got him after using the mirror images from fracture as always-there decoys; every time he swung at one it bought me that extra moment for DS to come back up. Izual I did not solo, so I don't have any insight.
Diablo - After a few deaths and different spec trials, some of this with a 100k dps DH in tow, I went and got the wand/shield upgrade and one-shot him solo with the standard spec (WW/EB). By far the most important thing is to save EVERYTHING for the clones when they pop in phase 2 (you can control when they spawn so be mindful), and then just make 3-4 laps around the whole room, teleporting away from Diablo when he comes back and letting him waste his angst on your fractures. For me, arcane orb by my clone was instakill thru DS. Also, kindly stay out of the soul cages and don't forget that frost nova stops the cast, but not the existing shadows. I could actually live thru the soul cage capture animation on a full health bar, but it literally brought me to 200 health so this is not a good idea. Finally, I found it worthwhile to teleport out of the big fireballs, and used teleport a lot in general to close distances with him whenever he saw a squirrel.
ORIGINAL POST AS FOLLOWS
Hey everyone,
I made a few posts on DiabloFans and in other threads on this forum on this issue, and wanted to take some time to put my thoughts together and see if the end result can help some more people.
First, please do take some time to read Sme's guide on melee wizards; this guy can be credited with pioneering the build. Also, do yourself a service and read through the 72 pages of posts, particularly the ones discussing Wicked Wind / EB and possible variants for different (usually higher) gear levels.
Sme's latest thread, with links to previous - http://us.battle.net...opic/5889160871
OK, let's get to the details.
SPEC - http://us.battle.net...YXhO!gWb!YYZacc
(alternate low-level spec: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VQYXhO!gWb!YYZaaZ - swap in main line skills as they become available)
(god-level gear + pocket barb alternative: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VWYXhT!gWb!Yacacc - right click can also be hydra, archon, etc)
L-Click: Energy Twister with Wicked Wind
This skill may as well be called Healing Wind; with respectable LPH and at least one target to hit, you can bring yourself to full life in moments if anything gets through your diamond skin. It also procs Critical Mass quite a good bit. Do yourself a favor and just hold your left click down on stuff; it will cast just fine once you have enough AP rather than the L-click spamfest that is driving your cat insane.
R-Click: Teleport with Fracture or Safe Passage
I have played with a few skills for this slot, but have found Teleport to be absolutely essential; there are just way too many mob affixes and types that will give you unnecessary problems without it (waller/jailer/vortex/nightmarish plus any kind of nasty arcane/molten/desecrator combination for starters, molok anything, other obnoxious kiters). Also, there is something beautiful about being able to teleport every few seconds with Critical Mass, and position yourself in the best possible location for CM / AP procs at any given point. With the Safe Passage rune, it is feasible to keep the 30% buff at a high uptime, however this does cut into your AP supply and tends to shift big boss mobs around (so they are no longer standing in your tornado storm); Fracture is just strong overall for the extra distraction component. Calamity, I do not recommend as the last thing you want to do as a melee wizard is to knock mobs all over the place.
Hotkey 1: Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell or Prism if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for life orb to not move at all. Every time this icon lights up, it needs to be casted, because you never know what is going to happen in the next few seconds. Obviously, you can save your finger energy on white packs that are perma-rooted, but you get the idea...
Hotkey 2: Frost Nova with Cold Snap or Bone Chill if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for stuff to move as little as possible for maximum WW uptime. At my unimpressive gear levels I am already able to pseudo-perma root elite packs. There is no reason not to cast Frost Nova when it is lit up. Note that, while Deep Freeze and Bone Chill are perfectly viable runes, I have found that Cold Snap is quite simply the best as it serves to further mitigate incoming damage and leverage your close-range abilities against annoying, fast kiters. Also, for the time being, Cold Snap means more Cold Blooded uptime.
Hotkey 3: Exposive Blast with Chain Reaction
This is the superior iteration of EB (although people just starting out should probably begin with Unleashed). For reasons, please see the discussion in Sme's threads. Purpose should be self-explanatory; you can generally spam it but be careful that you do not have more EB casts than WW as it does not proc LoH, CM and AP on Crit quite as reliably.
Hotkey 4: Force Armor with Prismatic
Also self-explanatory, armor and resists are your two main stats. You can try running with Pinpoint if your gear is weak and you have a barb friend for the shout, otherwise I do not recommend it. At higher gear levels, Storm Armor with Shocking Aspect is another option if you have the pocket barb. Keep this on at all times; I have died more to it wearing off than anything else, lol.
Passives: Critical Mass, Evocation, Cold Blooded
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage (on targets frozen by nova, thank you resident moron for pointing out that I did not specifically say this), so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time. Evocation helps all of your skills, particularly Frost Nova for higher Cold Blooded uptime, etc. Once Cold Blooded is fixed, you can use Blur in conjunction with Storm Armor in groups with a barb, or Temporal Flux in general.
Other skills / runes to mix in for groups - bone chill on nova, time warp instead of teleport; safe passage teleport with the storm armor shocking aspect variant...a lot can work in a group, and this is probably the best usage of melee wizard to boot (particularly if you can get that yummy barb shout).
GEAR
Stat priority for melee wiz is as follows:
1) AP on Crit - at least 15 from weapon and helm; basically weapon must be a wand, otherwise you need to outgear content and use a source. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 9 AP on Crit from helm only after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff; keep old weapon as backup just in case.
2 ) Life per hit - at least 800 to start, less is tolerable at higher gear levels, more is safer as long as you have the durability. Note that you basically have to get this on a weapon as other slots (jewelry) can't really roll with a lot. This means that you need a weapon with AP on Crit, Life per Hit and decent DPS (mine is 590, lol); anything else is high roller / good luck; search AH for these two stats and view downward from top DPS. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 400 LoH after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff;keep old weapon as backup just in case.
3) Crit - important as it is only available on a few slots: gloves (a lot), helm and bracer (not a lot; I think 5% may be max on wizard hats or something), weapon (above stats more important), shield (same as gloves, a lot), and jewelry. Gloves with both IAS and crit are going to be expensive, so your practical solution is to get crit from gloves for this spec (not IAS). 20 is a good start, 30 is plenty.
4) All Resist and Armor - almost equally important to crit, and irreversibly linked together. You need a lot of AR and armor so every single piece should have 50% AR (affordable) and +armor as possible. At low budgets, this means that you will search for int / AR / crit (where possible) for each armor slot, sort downward by ARMOR RATING, and then look for other stats like vit and sort to increase/decrease Int and AR. You will want at least 800 AR and 6k armor after buffs to start; can stop resists at 1k but never stop focus on armor as it is more difficult to max (try to get the +bonus on each armor slot if you can; remember that a friendly barb boosts resists but not armor because enchantress gives almost as much solo).
5) Intelligence and Vitality - still important, but everything else comes before. I group these together as you will generally want both on armor (affordable along with AR); also on the gloves, helm and shield (your crit gear). The benefit of vitality is obvious; intelligence is more of a luxury but it's fairly affordable to search auctions for it because most wizzies are still buying up glass cannon gear; can get 140+ int pieces with armor, resists and vitality for good prices.
6) Critical Damage Bonus - this is actually the best way to increase DPS, but it is also a luxury stat that should only be picked up when possible. You have to develop your tank first; trust me 8k DPS is enough to clear extra health elites, and your actual DPS is much higher anyway due to the ability to spam.
7) IAS / damage / life % / skill bonuses / movement speed / MF / GF / other expensive shit - only as they do not interfere with the top 4 priorities. Exception is movement speed on boots; this is fairly cheap most of the time (look for boots with movement, AR and int/vit).
In summary, items you should try to procure in order to "unlock" this playstyle:
a) 700+ LoH / 8+ AP on crit / 550+ DPS wand with +crit damage if possible
7+ AP on crit / 50+ AR / int / vit helm with +armor and +crit if possible
c) 6%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit shield with +armor if possible
d) 7%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit gloves with +armor if possible
e) 150+ LoH rings and amulet with either crit or attack speed (preference on crit), AR, +armor and +crit damage if possible
f) For bracer, you may want to start out with 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit and take 3%+ crit only if you can get it cheap.
g) 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit on all "vanilla" slots that cannot contain DPS stats
All of this gear should be purchasable for 1-2M and a few dollars here and there; just have to get lucky with the moderate DPS LoH / AP on crit wand as there's not very many in circulation (I guess because people automatically vendor anything with <700 DPS?).
FACETANKING GHOM
I died a few times to him yesterday with my standard spec, then decided to mix in Venom Hydra and Time Warp (instead of tele and frost nova) and nailed him. I was able to facetank him in one spot and absorb all damage by both his fatass and his fatgas. The key is TO NOT LET YOUR PRISMATIC DROP! Only after the fact did I realize that this is why I died the first few times (because it took me that long with my low DPS to get his lifebar down); at the time I thought that his damage output got stronger and he was therefore not tankable for a long period.
Bottom line is to stand in ONE spot (do not move around, as he will move around and out of your WW) and just HOLD left-click on him, while SPAMMING THE HELL out of diamond skin and hitting EB only when your AP gets high. With my gear (1k resists, 6.5k armor, 1k LoH, 18 AP on crit, 21% crit), my lifebar cycled between 80-100% and never really dropped further. Missing a diamond skin because the fatass moved can be disastrous to your health, so just keep him in one spot. Note that if he starts moving a lot, you can move back yourself to trigger his slimes (yum more targets) which can help you out of a tight spot due to the additional procs; this is dangerous so keep a potion CD ready.
DEALING WITH OBNOXIOUS ELITES
Arcane vortex desecrator molten molok, anyone? Some combos are just not fair. Where possible, you actually want to be fighting all of the spawns at the same time, with at least the first 10-15 seconds spent surrounded by white mobs. Obviously, mobs that kite don't really agree with your strategy. If the bastards have just one or two ground target abilities (desecrator or arcane), then you can save your teleport for when one gets casted in a location where it will threaten you. If the bastards have ALL of the ground target abilities, you need to save your tele for vortex/jailer/waller/clusterfun. If the bastards are also kiters, you should probably evaluate the possibility of skipping them, as you can expect an enrage with your gear, and killing one does not help with the others as it gives you less procs of stuff.
On the plus side, most melee elites that do not have ALL of the ground target abilities plus obnoxious combo that leaves you subject to them, are for the most part
; just run into them and start your rotation. Even fire chains / molten can be handled with little problem if you can limit their movement and keep them in front of you (tele helps).
Please let me know if you have questions; I will check the thread periodically. For people linking stats, do us all a favor and share your LoH, AP on crit and crit; otherwise we have no idea how to help you.
Frost Nova will always be better with Deep Freeze if your crit % is low, and Bone Chill if yours is high enough. While Cold Snap theoretically reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova, beyond a crit % of around 30% you should be able to just chain cast them. Especially since you have Evocation.
Another possible passive is Astral Presence, especially when you first start out and your AP on crit is not high enough to sustain this build.
As for stat priorities, I'd go AP on crit (till 15 or 20) > Crit % > Crit Damage > LOH > IAS > Int. Always strive to maintain 5k-ish armor, at least 600 AR buffed and at least 25k hp. Another stat to consider is CC reduction. This is not a very popular stat, but in a build like this where mobility and the ability to chain cast is key to our survival, having as little downtime as possible is important.
Some good pieces of gear include -
Dark Magus Hat - You'd definitely get Crit, Intellect, 9% CC reduction and one socket from this. Try to look for one with 3% crit bonus to EB as well. Pretty cheap usually, got mine for 200k.
Wizardspike - Definitely AP on Crit, Max AP and Intellect. Try to look for those with sockets as well. Can be slightly more expensive though. Lucked out and got my 669 dps Wizardspike with all these for 1.2m, but they're generally around 10m or so.
anyways i gotta say, op, since switching to this skill set i've cut down on deaths by at least 500% and am now enjoying having my way with illusionist/arcane enchanted/etc. teleport really was a necessary skill.
You are quite simply wrong on Deep Freeze? Why? You have to hit 5 targets. Meaning that it gives you no benefit for champion packs once all adds are dead. The specific benefit of Cold Snap as I outlined is that it allows you to increase uptime of Cold Blooded / reduce amount of time that elite packs are moving around and using their abilities. No, you cannot chain-cast nova on elites without Cold Snap at 30% crit.
If you need Astral Presense, then you should be running the Deep Cuts / Star Pact variant. AP alone does not go anywhere near compensating for not having sufficient AP on crit (which is not difficult to get in the first place if you recognize that you have to make a wand DPS sacrifice).
As for your suggested stat priority, I am confused at how you stay alive in Inferno with such low armor, resists and LoH. I am guessing that you either have 30k+ DPS from high-end gear, or are not in fact playing past act 1 inferno. Please clarify.
As far as your recommendations on unique items, it is far more important to focus on the top 4 stats than to get situational bonuses like crowd control reduction. A good hat for this build has AP on crit, a few points of crit, 50+ AR, +armor, and a moderate amount of int / vit.
WW and meteor is a bit overkill, and astral presence is wasting a slot (CB and evo are all better). Also, with both of these skills, your AP supply for EB is diminished OR you have less tornadoes and therefore less crits.
Time Warp is definitely strong in groups as well as Bone Chill nova. If you have a barb, consider swapping Prismatic to Pinpoint as well; just make sure that you keep the shout on you.
EB is very efficient for damage/cost; which is why it normally has a cooldown. With a CM build, the cooldown is mitigated, and it deals damage to everything around you, proccing LoH, CM and AP on Crit. Hydra is super-strong right now, but it procs nothing, so while it does help you kill things faster (maybe), it also makes you less durable.
I guess we differ on how we play then.
I run through the whole dungeon constantly, and only stop when I meet Champions or Elites. That way, I'd always have a ready pool of mobs to get AP from. When I rolled with Deep Freeze (I use Bone Chill now), I could consistently get the bonus. Indeed, Cold Snap is a useful rune, but I found it to be an overkill with both Evocation and >30% crit around.
I don't really need Astral Presence. I just suggested it as an alternative for those who can't afford AP on crit gear, since this was a thread targeted at those starting out on this build.
Similar to my Astral Presence suggestion, the 600 AR buffed, 5k-ish armor and 25k hp is for entry level melee wizards (as the thread title implies). Anyone can easily clear early Inferno with such stats. I'm not sure how my personal progression matters since this thread is targeted at entry level melee wizards, but I'm clearing Act 3 Inferno now.
I used this build's skill set up but replaced teleport with venom hydra and EB with time warp. I used cold snap on nova for the boss.
I use crit mass/cold blooded/evocation most of the time, and used these passives for diablo as well. I find astral presence unnecessary at this gear level.
I was able to easily chain DS/time warp/nova for the whole fight. I stood in fire. I stood in cages. Even with ds down I was able to survive cages. During p2 I ran away from the adds until they despawned... This was after many unsuccesssful attempts to tank them down while remaining stationary. The clones hit ridiculously hard no matter how much armor and resistance you have, and remain incredibly mobile. I found myself lucky if I was survived the first clone when I attempted to kill them, but I easily survived all 3 clones the first time I tried running until they despawned.
I use a weapon (socketed/850 dps/300 int) from my "regular" dps build (66-71k dps with very little resist) which i socket with a 500 life on hit gem for my tank build (it usually has an emerald socketed)
Not counting my weapon or gem I have spent 5-6 million on the gear for the set I beat diablo in. Factor in weapon and gem (perfect star) and you can probably tack on another 10m, but I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to do it with much lower dps as long as you had a socket and a 300 life on hit gem. I found the 9 ap on crit return from my helm alone enough to sustain the casting requirements of the build without also going for ap on crit on my weapon.
stats:
crit: ~30
ap on crit: 9
resist: 1000-1100 with primsatic
hp: 27k
dps: 15k
armor: ~7500 buffed
life on hit: ~1350
for packs/farming in a3 I use the build from this post exactly (with fracture on tele)
I can also post screenshot of gear if you'd like
This is a good guide with a comprehensive description, I totally agree with all the stat priority and speccing info.
Can anyone else confirm, first time I heard about this and I tried it out. I didnt see any "flat out" damage increase what-so-ever.
It's easily tested within a few minutes in game lol; also search the official forums.
Edlike, congrats on your progress! You are ahead of me at this point, still progressing in act 3 lol (barely any time to play with work, etc). I am a bit curious about your great success with such low AP on hit however (may mean that it's a viable option to have this stat coming from just the helmet so it is possible to get a more powerful wand for someone like me who is not bankrolling from RMAH). Would you mind posting a sshot listing all of your stats so that I can compare with my own (our defenses are very close)?
Easily tested yes, Im saying Im not getting any damage increase what so ever.. 20% should be noticeable. I havent seen any blue posts about this at the official forums
OK bro I will hold your hand for you some more.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5979088098
http://us.battle.net...opic/5978199975
Here is a screen comp of my stats, i dont see it showing AP on crit in the character sheet so i just ss'd my helm and weapon and life on hit gear so you can see i'm not rocking a source.
I assume the more your crit % goes up the less relative amount of AP on crit you need. If you are closer to 20% rather than 30% crit you might need the additional AP on crit to sustain. if you want to see more of my gear beyond that its pretty standard, at least 50 AR on everything, prioritizing armor, and really searching for lots of crit (gloves, rings, shield, helm). i socketed vitality because i was feeling a little low with like 18k hp even with all those resists. let me know if there's any other info i can supply.
these are my stats WITH prismatic up. i use blur/cold blooded/evocation
http://www.windupwizard.com/
Just to be sure you're testing it right, you're testing on a chilled or fozen mob, right? The apparent tooltip error or bug is that it applies to all damage, not just cold damage, as long as it is chilled or frozen.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
His boots are worth 5 times my entire gear set combined
Man this spec requires some serious cash to throw down on gear and the damage isn't amazing either. Looks pretty OP though. I would have to say the tornado barb is like a million times more ridiculous though. If something needs a nerf, it should be them not us.